HARRISBURG, N.C. — A former actor from California was president of the United States, a first-class postage stamp sold for 22 cents, “Top Gun” starring Tom Cruise was the top-grossing film at the box office and National Speed Sport News was America’s weekly source for racing news and results.
The year was 1986 and during the first six months of the racing season, those results included Geoff Bodine scoring car owner Rick Hendrick’s first Daytona 500 victory and Bobby Rahal claiming an emotional triumph in the Indianapolis 500 just 11 days before his car owner, Jim Trueman, lost his battle with cancer.
Then, in late July, NSSN reported that a pair of female drivers — Bev Griffis and Patty Moise — had made auto-racing history by winning major races during the same week.
Digging into the archives, we found that on Thursday night, July 24, 1986, Griffis became the first woman to win a United States Auto Club feature.
The milestone victory came in a USAC Regional Midget Series race at the Indianapolis Speedrome.
Griffis held off repeated challenges from Mack McClellan during the final 12 laps to win the 50-lap main event that was televised live by ESPN. McClellan was unsuccessful in several attempts to make an outside-inside pass down the front straightaway as Griffis slammed the door each time going into the first turn.
“I really didn’t know who it was. I thought it was Johnny Parsons,” Griffis said later. “I knew he was going to try me on the outside, so I had to take that away from him.”
The race was the 11th USAC Regional Midget Series feature start for Griffis at the one-fifth mile paved oval and she took home $1,000. Among those joining the happy winner in victory lane was her father and car owner, Bob Wilkins.
After finishing second in the third heat race, Griffis started the feature from the pole and led the race from flag to flag. The action was interrupted by four caution periods with the last one coming 12 laps from the finish and wiping out her 3.8-second lead over McClellan.
McClellan, the inaugural USAC Regional Midget Series champion, took second place from Parsons on lap 36 and went on to claim the runner-up prize. Parsons settled for third ahead of Billy Humphreys and Tom Hayworth.
Jim Hines, Kenneth Nichols, Bobby Allen, George Wilkins and rookie Stevie Reeves completed the top-10 finishers in the 22-car field.
On Sunday afternoon, July 27, 1986, Moise became the first female driver to score an overall victory in professional American road racing when she won the Kelly American Challenge Series event at Portland Int’l Raceway.
Moise, a five-year veteran of the Kelly American Series, started third in her Buick Somerset. She surprised front-row starters Irv Hoerr and Dick Danielson by blasting into the lead when the green flag was waved.
Moise, of Jacksonville, Fla., went on to lead all but two of the 32 laps around the 1.915-mile circuit and she beat Hoerr, who had won five consecutive series races, to the checkered flag by 1.537 seconds. The victory was worth $6,900.
Danielson came home third with Clay Young and Robin Dallenbach, another female racer, rounding out the top-five finishers.
Not too far removed from a time when women weren’t even allowed to enter the pit area at most race tracks, these victories by Griffis and Moise during the summer of 1986 are significant milestones in auto-racing history.
Fortunately, they were documented in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
• NASCAR’s 600 Miles of Remembrance has become an integral part of the Coca-Cola 600 weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The program features the names of fallen service men and women prominently displayed on the windshield of each NASCAR Cup Series car competing in the crown jewel event.
In addition, at the halfway point of the 400-lap race, the field was brought to pit road and the engines fell silent in a moving moment of remembrance.
I’ll admit it — even this grizzled racing veteran had to wipe away a tear or two.